Antipodean view of the Thames

February 24 2003

Timothy Walker.

Timothy Walker is now very well placed to lure talent Down Under, writes Anna King Murdoch.

Timothy Walker, the man responsible for bringing the best orchestras in the world to Australia, was not even vaguely wishing for an overseas posting when he was called to London last year to be interviewed for a top position with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

He had already turned down a number of overseas offers because he was "very attached to doing things for the musical life of Australia". As general manager of the Australian Chamber Orchestra for 10 years until 1999, he helped it become what a reviewer in The Times in London described as "the best chamber orchestra on earth".

Now he wanted to concentrate on his World Orchestras series, which is to run until 2008. But he went to London and faced a panel of eight interviewers for 90 minutes, a panel including the director of the Edinburgh Festival, the director of Glyndeborne and the former general manager of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.

Although Walker didn't really care whether they wanted him or not, the panel was unanimous in its decision. "They were far more enthusiastic about it than I was," he says.

He asked to think about it and finally decided that he would be even better placed in London to make his orchestral season work in Australia - more easily able to lure the orchestras, conductors and soloists and negotiate the repertoire - while having someone run the financial side of the business from here. ");document.write("

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In this new position working alongside conductor Kurt Mazur as chief executive and artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, starting in April, Walker joins a number of Australians at the top of the English arts scene, including Michael Lynch who has been appointed to run the swanky new Southbank Centre by the Thames.

Walker, speaking during a brief visit to Brisbane, says he has no plans to make big changes to this great orchestra during his five-year contract. "The orchestra has been through a period of change in the last eight years and now has a strategy," he says. "The problem in London is, can they really sustain five symphony orchestras? The other interesting thing is that the players own the orchestra; 80 full-time performers run the company and the chairman of the board is one of the players and he is a very impressive person."

It reminds him of when he joined the Australian Chamber Orchestra with government funding at only 8 per cent and contracts only for one year. "The responsibility is not just on good management but playing of excellence," he says. "With the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the responsibility on the players to be top of the tree rests with them. I think that's very appropriate."

He will return to Australia three or four times a year for the World Orchestras series and to visit his property near Launceston.

This year's season, which starts with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev in April, will be extending to Brisbane for the first time. There will be only one performance in Melbourne, compared with two last year. The other two orchestras this year will be the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with Herbert Blomstedt in June and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy in September.

Walker, who hopes to bring out 75-year-old Mazur and his orchestra in 2005, says an international orchestral season is no threat to Australia's orchestras. "It's not a competitive move. It's not going to eat into the market of local orchestras. It's only going to help increase the market," he says. "One of my interests in doing this was to help develop the quality of orchestral playing. We are playing very much in a vacuum and players need to hear other things to be stimulated."

As for the ticket prices, which range from $75 to $295, he says it is not as expensive as it seems. "You have to keep reminding people that you are bringing 110 musicians plus the support staff of between 10 and 20, the chief conductor, which is expensive and the pantechnicon full of equipment. There are performance fees, rehearsal fees, accommodation fees and living allowances.

"The thing is that it is giving people the opportunity to hear world's best orchestras and chief conductors playing the repertoire that they're most famous for in their own concert halls with the acoustics they're used to and they don't have to fly to the other side of the world. So even though it's expensive you have to be realistic."

Despite the ambitious scale of the project, Walker is sure that his vision will pay off for Australia. He knew what he wanted for the ACO - a full-time, first-class, international ensemble - and he also knew when to leave. "I had done 20 overseas tours with the orchestra, we had those wonderful reviews, the national season was in place with the eight cities and the new home down at Circular Quay was happening. The day we moved in there was the day I resigned."